Memorial lecture series featuring women ceramists launched

he ASU Museum Ceramics Research Center at Arizona State University is pleased to present the inaugural Jan Fisher Memorial Lecture Series. Named in honor of Jan Fisher, an art history graduate student and active CLA (Ceramics Leaders of ASU) member who passed away in February 2006, the lecture series brings to the Phoenix community both established and emerging women ceramic artists. While on campus, all of the participating artists will meet with art students and become acquainted with the Herberger College of the Arts programs. Support for this series is provided by Mr. and Mrs. Cole Fisher and their family.

Schedule:

• Tuesday March 20, 2007, Patti Warashina lecture, 7:00 p.m., Neeb Hall with reception following at the CRC
• Tuesday, Sept.11, 2007, Julie York lecture, 7:00 p.m., location TBA, with reception following at the CRC
• Wednesday, Nov. 7, 2007, Nora Naranjo-Morse lecture, 7:00 p.m., location TBA, with reception following at the CRC
• Saturday, Jan. 26, 2008, Betty Woodman lecture, time and location TBA, with reception following at the CRC

Speaker profiles
Internationally acclaimed ceramic sculptor Patti Warashina’s divergent influences include Asian ceramic traditions, Surrealism and California funk ceramics. A major figure in the development of studio ceramics and Professor Emeritus at the University of Washington, Warashina is credited with bringing national recognition to Northwest ceramics and influencing a new generation of contemporary ceramic artists. She is best known for her humorous figurative sculptures with whimsical themes expressed through low-fire highly colored images. Often satirical, her dreamlike autobiographical sculptures are seductive and playful; yet explore provocative subject matter.

Julie York describes her art as “a reflection of how she sees.”  York’s mixed-media sculpture and installations reflect a dynamic intellectual and visual exploration of her day-to-day experiences and surrounding environment. Found objects, reproduced in slip-cast porcelain juxtaposed with metal, glass and plastic, question her own and the viewers perceptions.

Nora Naranjo-Morse, a Native American artist from the Santa Clara Pueblo explores contemporary issues in a wide variety of media: clay, bronze, video and poetry.  Morse embraces traditional practices of working with clay imbued by her concerns with community, the environment and what it means to be a Native American woman in today’s society. She freely challenges perceptions and expectations, expressing issues of gender and aging in a humorous, yet potent manner.

One of the most influential American ceramists of the 20th century, Betty Woodman integrates color and form into complex sculpture based on the historical traditions of pottery-making; most notably Asian and Italian majolica. Woodman was honored in 2006 as the first living woman artist to have a solo exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, and is represented in museum collections worldwide.

The ASU Art Museum Ceramics Research Center is part of the Herberger College of the Arts at Arizona State University. The Ceramics Research Center is located on the northeast corner of Mill Avenue and 10th Street in Tempe. Admission is free.  Hours are 10 a.m. - 5 p.m., Tuesday through Saturday. For more information, call 480.965.2787 or visit online at asuartmuseum.asu.edu/ceramicsresearchcenter.

Media Contact:
Peter Held
480.727.8173 
peter.held@asu.edu